Tom and I live in the middle of probably 1000 acres of woodland. In every direction, the forest encroaches on all aspects of our lives. Trees provide our raw building materials. They heat our tiny cabin. They give us exercise as we clear and open up space for our homestead. The leaves make shade in the summer and filter our air, keeping wind-born plant diseases from our gardens and lessening the greenhouse effect. The nuts and acorns provide food for wildlife, hopefully keeping them out of our gardens.

Because we live in a forest, with all tree branches shooting straight up to compete for sunlight, we have no good climbing trees—a huge disappointment to me. My girlhood was spent high in the tops of yard and field trees with wide-spreading branches suitable for tree forts and climbing races to the top. Our forest, unfortunately, is mostly oak, unsuitable for our work because of its open grain which could trap food and germs. It’s perfect for timber framing, though, and locally, is second only to hickory as a firewood. 

For our work, then, we mainly use Cherry, Black Walnut, Birch and Maple--all top grade New England hardwoods. Two reasons: As artists, we love the range of colors and distinctive grain patterns of our local woods, and as organic-types, we’re pleased that our raw materials have a small carbon footprint.